(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a water treatment device using a hollow fiber membrane module. More particularly, the present invention relates to a hollow fiber membrane, of which membrane washing is easy, and a water treatment device using the same.
(b) Description of the Related Art
In general, an isolation membrane technology is one of isolation technologies using a material selective transmissive property of a polymer material, and an isolation membrane is divided into a flat sheet membrane, a tubular type membrane, and a hollow fiber membrane according to a form thereof.
A membrane filtration process using the isolation membrane occupies a smaller site area than that of an existing water treatment process, and is capable of completely removing a material having a larger normal pore size than that of the membrane, so that the membrane filtration process is use for a water treatment facility requiring safety. Further, the isolation membrane technology may be formed as a small module, so that the isolation membrane technology is applicable to small-scale water treatment.
An isolation membrane is modularized so as to be convenient to use and selected according to a usage. Among the isolation membranes, the hollow fiber membrane uses a hollow fiber having a diameter of 0.2 to 2 mm and an empty center. The hollow fiber membrane has a larger membrane area ratio per unit volume than that of another type of isolation membrane. Accordingly, the hollow fiber membrane has high productivity. Further, the hollow fiber membrane has a small diameter, so that the hollow fiber membrane may maintain a form by itself, and does not require a separate support, thereby being widely used.
However, the isolation membrane module requires a large pressure difference so there is a problem in that contamination of the isolation membrane is accelerated, and a pump and a blower requiring high energy consumption are required in order to decrease membrane contamination due to a suspended solid. As described above, the water treatment device using the isolation membrane module in the related art has a structure requiring high energy consumption and a high cost, and consequently, a region having insufficient electricity or an underdeveloped nation has difficulty in repairing and maintaining the water treatment device, and thus it is not easy to use the water treatment device.
In order to solve the problem, a non-power water treatment technology filtering water by using a water head pressure of a water container has been developed. However, the structure cannot properly wash contaminants attached to the membrane module. Accordingly, the amount of water produced is continuously decreased during the maintenance of the filtration.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.